The Tyler Republican gave up his health insurance for 2014, asserting that the president’s signature health care law, the Affordable Care Act, has made coverage too expensive.

“Other people are going to see what I did when I looked into health insurance for my wife and me: that the deductible rate, it doubled, about $3,000 to $6,000, and our policy was going to go from about $300 to about $1,500 a month,” he said during a recent radio interview with Trey Graham, a pastor at First Melissa Baptist Church in Collin County. “I actually don’t have insurance right now, so thank you very much, Obamacare.”

Gohmert’s salary as a member of Congress is $174,000 a year. And his calculations ignore the hefty employer subsidy for which he is eligible — almost $950 per month. He says he will pay the tax that takes effect this year for those without insurance — 1 percent of his annual income.

Health care experts say Gohmert is taking a big risk. He’s 60. His wife, Kathy Gohmert, is 59. At that stage of life, medical expenses are common and unpredictable.

“By not obtaining insurance, you are just rolling the dice, gambling that you are not going to get sick or going to get hit by a car,” said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown University’s Health Policy Institute. “Most financial advisers and most independent experts would say it’s a wise move to obtain insurance and basically a no-brainer if you have an employer who is willing to kick in about 70 percent of the cost of your premium.”

That’s the case for Gohmert.

But for months, he’s said he would rather give up his government-supplied insurance than accept any government subsidy. If he did take the subsidy available to federal lawmakers and their aides, he would probably pay a monthly premium of about $600 — far less than the figure he cited on Graham’s show, which aired Sunday.

In a brief interview at the Capitol, Gohmert said that he’s a victim of Obamacare.

“I lost my health care. I liked it OK, but I didn’t get to keep it,” he said, referring to his previous insurance plan. “I couldn’t afford to go up four or five times what I was paying and double my deductible, and so I’m better off with just setting money aside for health care and paying the penalty.

Like every representative and senator, Gohmert can receive free outpatient care at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and other Washington-area military facilities, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. Lawmakers pay full price for in-patient treatment, and for any treatment that takes place outside Washington.

Inside the Capitol, lawmakers can also get routine exams and limited diagnostic tests at the Office of the Attending Physician. The annual fee was $576 last year.

Gohmert’s aides did not say whether he receives care from that facility or will do so in the future. Spouses cannot use the facilities.

Obamacare opposition

In the past, premiums for lawmakers were pooled with those of congressional staff, most of whom are younger than senators and U.S. House members. Under the Affordable Care Act, older customers — including many members of Congress — can be charged more, within limits.

Gohmert’s resistance to Obamacare goes back to its beginning, and he remains staunchly committed to its repeal. He’s a tea party favorite and one of the more outspoken conservatives in Congress.

He’s taken to the House floor repeatedly to denounce Obamacare. At an East Texas lunch, he warned seniors that they would “suffer and potentially die” thanks to the law.

“This is less a statement about affordability than it is a political statement,” said Michael Tanner, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, a libertarian-leaning think tank. “But he is making a point that someone in his district who lost their insurance would not be getting the special treatment that members of Congress are getting,” because they would not be eligible for any subsidy at that income level.

Members of Congress and their aides represent an unusual category of insurance customers. Before the Affordable Care Act, they were eligible for the same insurance options offered to civilian employees across the federal government.

Under the new law, they get insurance through the Washington, D.C., insurance exchange, which created an unintended problem. Workers at big companies get employee-subsidized insurance through their jobs. Exchanges were meant for people who lacked insurance and didn’t get such subsidies.

To make sure that members of Congress and their aides weren’t penalized, the Obama administration announced that subsidies would carry over for them to the local exchange.

Special treatment

To Gohmert and other critics, that smacked of special treatment. House Republicans tried to kill the subsidies, only to be blocked by the Democratic-run Senate. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has sued to end the subsidies, on grounds that they are an unfair perk and not authorized by the law itself.

But even he hasn’t gone to the same lengths as Gohmert in his resistance to Obamacare. CNN recently canvassed lawmakers and couldn’t find anyone else rejecting coverage.

“I was pretty surprised when he said it,” said Graham, the pastor and radio host. “A lot of people have been speaking in the abstract, and this is really the first time, in my opinion, where the congressperson says, ‘I do not have health insurance because of Obamacare.’”

Gohmert is one of the poorest members of Congress, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. His most recent financial disclosure report shows no significant assets. With his mortgage and other loans, Gohmert has a negative net worth of about $162,000.

The disclosure does not include any full-time work by his wife that would suggest the couple can access other employer-provided insurance. Aides to Gohmert did not respond when asked whether the lawmaker or his wife has chronic conditions that require regular medications or other care.

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